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RECTOR'S BLOG We’re just getting started… Dear Friends, One of the images for the season of Lent is wilderness. It’s easy to see why. According to the Gospels, Jesus spent forty days in the wilderness after his baptism by John in the Jordan River. The people of Israel spent forty years in the wilderness after they were freed from slavery in Egypt. Although we, who live in North America, often think of wilderness areas as being heavily forested, the wildernesses of the Middle East are deserts – dry, desolate places with little to sustain life. Many years ago, a priest friend gave me a book of sermons by H.A. Williams entitled The True Wilderness. The title comes from one of the sermons – the one Williams preached on Ash Wednesday in the Chapel of Trinity College, Cambridge. Here’s how he began the sermon: “It is a pity that we think of Lent as a time to make ourselves uncomfortable in some fiddling but irritating way. And it’s more than a pity, it’s a tragic disaster, that we also think of it as a time to indulge in the secret and destructive pleasure of doing a good orthodox grovel to a pseudo-Lord, the pharisee in each of us we call God and who despises the rest of what we are.” Ouch! I remember thinking, is this what I’ve been doing all these years I’ve been giving things up – like alcohol or chocolate – for Lent? Was I just making myself “uncomfortable in
some fiddling but irritating way”? H.A. Williams went on to say that what Lent should be about is entering the true wilderness that’s inside each of us – a wilderness that isn’t so much about our wickedness (although some people are indeed wicked) but is rather about how incapable we are of establishing communion with each other and, therefore, how alone and isolated we are. This past Christmas Eve, USA Today published an article about how loneliness has become epidemic in the United States. Dr. Vivek Murthy, the Surgeon General, gives this definition of loneliness: he says loneliness occurs when the connections a person needs in life are greater than the connections they have. If loneliness is not your wilderness, you are blessed. If the connections you have are greater than the connections you need in life, give thanks. But if loneliness is your wilderness, Lent offers forty days to reestablish communion with others and with God. Here are ways we offer “holy communion” – ways to connect – at Trinity during Lent: the 10 o’clock Sunday service (in-person or online), the Wednesday service of Holy Eucharist at noon or the three Wednesday evening offerings: Evening Prayer at 5:30 pm., supper with others at 6:15 pm, and the class I’m teaching at 7:00 pm about St. Mark’s account of Holy Week. Celebrity doctor Daniel Amen recommends minimizing screen time while maximizing inperson interactions to combat loneliness. He especially recommends church. “So it’s back to church,” he says. “Go back to church. Get involved. Get involved with groups. We have to go back. And really, no better place to solve [loneliness] than the church.” The good news is that the Biblical accounts about wilderness end with stories of new beginnings, of new life, of new connections. The season of Lent ends this way, too, on Easter morning . . . . But for now, we’re just getting started. Blessings, Stephen Applegate
OUR LENTEN JOURNEY Wednesday noon Eucharists. Starting Wednesday, February 21 and continuing through to Wednesday in Holy Week on March 27, Trinity will offer weekly services of Holy Eucharist at 12:00 noon in St. Mark’s Chapel. Wednesday evening activities. Starting Wednesday, February 21 and running through Wednesday, March 20, there will be four activities in which parishioners and friends are
invited to participate. Come for one of the activities or all of them! Service of Evening Prayer, 5:30 pm, in St. Mark’s Chapel Hearty soup, bread, and salad supper, 6:15 pm, in My Brother’s Place, Children are welcome, and a child-friendly food option will be available. “A Doorway into the Heart of God: Reading the Passion According to Mark” will begin at 7:00 pm, in My Brother’s Place. Our Interim Rector, Stephen Applegate, will lead the class through Mark’s version of the events of the last week of Jesus’ earthly life from the entry into Jerusalem to the crucifixion. The evening will end by 8:00 pm (except for Dungeons and Dragons!). Whether you are new to Lent or you have observed it intentionally for years, we hope that you will join one or more activities to guide your journey through Lent. We look forward to traveling together with you. I invite you, therefore, in the name of the Church, to the observance of a holy Lent, by selfexamination and repentance; by prayer, fasting, and self-denial; and by reading and meditating on God's holy Word. (Ash Wednesday service, The Book of Common Prayer)
Wednesday Lenten Soup & Salad Meals Wednesday Bible Study Lenten Series
BREAKFAST AT TRINITY UPDATES
Thank you Libbey Glass Factory Outlet Wow, wow, wow! Our friends at Libbey Glass Factory Outlet (at the former Erie Street Market) donated silverware, coffee mugs, plates, bowls and drinking glasses. We now have enough place settings for 150 beautiful people. We are so very grateful for their partnership and our own Phil Skeldon, for making this beautiful connection. Breakfast at Trinity TRAINING DAY! Unlike the 2001 academy award winning film, this will be taking place on Sunday, February 18 @11am in My Brother’s Place and not in central LA. We will be starting off with NARCAN training, then cycling people through the various spots they’ll be able to volunteer such as oven and griddle to hosting/seating people. We’ll be going over our training manual, washing some dishes, answering questions, and having an all-around good time. Let us know if you're coming! https://sugeni.us/4s3d Finally, our soft opening for the Breakfast is fast approaching on February 25 at 8:45! There are still some kitchen items we need, so we put together this handy dandy Amazon Wish List we’d like to share with you all! While we received our grant and matching funds (totaling $10,000), we still have equipment and food to purchase, and this $10,000 has to last through March of 2025. If you would like to contribute to the program and do not have time to volunteer your time, this would be a great way to support us. Open the link by clicking here!
If you do purchase, please have it sent to your home and not the church address as we have issues when packages are delivered. We appreciate you and see you Sunday!
SEARCH COMMITTEE UPDATES The Listening Sessions are:
February 25 –Listening Session #1; 11:45-12:45 (Sanctuary) March 17 –Listening Session # 2; 11:45-12:45 Eras Tour Heritage Lunch (My Brothers Place) April 21 – Listening Session #3; 11:45-12:45 (St Mark’s Chapel)
Have you noticed the new photo of Trinity's St. Mark's Chapel hanging in Trinity's living room? Toledo Streets Newspaper (TSN) vendor Harold Harris took the photo as part of TSN's annual fundraiser, which makes photos taken in downtown Toledo by the TSN vendors with disposable cameras available for purchase. Bruce and Meribah Mansfield successfully bid on Harold's photo and had it framed. Trinity parishioner and TSN Board member Amy Saylor celebrated with Harold in December when Trinity provided lunch for the vendors, which we do monthly.
TRINITY@HOME LIVE-STREAM Trinity@Home is now a live-stream of Trinity’s 10:00 am in-person service with an interactive chat.
www.trinitytoledo.org/live
Trinity’s mobile pantry is one of 8 monthly food pantries in Toledo/SE Michigan area. We will host the next Food Pantry in partnership with Food For Thought on Tuesday, February 27th.
Volunteer Now! The Philadelphia Eleven Online Screening March 8 @ 8pm $10 Watch this feature-length documentary film from the comfort of your own home. About the film In an act of civil disobedience, a group of women and their supporters organize their ordination to become Episcopal priests in 1974. The Church of the Advocate in Philadelphia welcomes them, but change is no small task. The women are harassed, some lose friends, and others are banned from stepping on church property. We will meet the women who succeed in building a movement that transforms an age-old institution, and challenges the very essence of patriarchy within Christendom.
https://kinema.com/events/the-philadelphia-eleven-jalij? fbclid=IwAR1ZcBYEetZ5jGdqUW3g4C053b8A5-G2GvELk1WYfzLkuJ6_SLzCc7pt-Co
Trinity's next Book Club will meet Sunday, April 7 at 6:30pm via zoom. We will be reading "Tom Lake" by Ann Patchett. Sign up online!
Episcopal News Service St. Valentine’s hometown strikes a balance between Ash Wednesday and Valentine’s Day [Religion News Service — Terni, Italy] This Wednesday marked a peculiar challenge for practicing Catholics. Valentine’s Day, characterized by... WCC general secretary will visit Holy Land to strengthen call for just peace [World Council of Churches] Member churches, religious leaders and local Christian groups in Palestine and Israel — as well as Palestinian president... Kansas City-area Episcopal leaders respond to shooting at Chiefs’ Super Bowl rally
[Episcopal News Service] Missouri and Kansas bishops responded with statements in the aftermath of a Feb. 14 shooting in which one person was killed... Northern Indiana parish imposes ‘Ashes to Go’ as Episcopal churches mark Ash Wednesday [Episcopal News Service — Valparaiso, Indiana] In this suburb of Chicago, Illinois, the Rev. Cathy Carpenter, priest-in-charge at St. Andrew’s...
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